Reviews

It's Simple, Said Simon by Mary Ann Hoberman, Meilo So

msmouse's review

adventurous funny lighthearted

4.0

Funny and engaging, but loses a star because tigers can swim 

drownedinlight's review

4.0

This book is delightful and would have normally earned five stars, however, in some of the final pages of the book, a tiger plans to eat the protagonist (the titular Simon). Normally I might forgive painting tigers as man eaters as that's been a common trope since Rudyard Kipling wrote The Jungle Book. In that regard I usually just have to shake my fist at the sky and shout, "Darn you, Kipling! Darn you to heck!" I digress - tigers being man eaters is not true, but none the less has a foundation in children's stories. However, this book claims that tigers can't swim. How false, how odiously false! Is it not bad enough that tigers are defamed as the aforementioned man eaters - second in reputation only to sharks? But now you claim they can't swim? Ma'am, Ms. Hoberman, ma'am - tigers are GREAT swimmers. They LOVE to swim. OF COURSE THEY CAN SWIM.

Anyway it was a nice story otherwise, with a bit of a twist on the normal sort of story as this by introducing the danger element.